Willie McCovey

Left-handed slugger with 521 home runs and a Hall of Fame career.

Willie Lee McCovey (January 10, 1938 – October 31, 2018), nicknamed "Stretch" and "Willie Mac", was an American professional baseball player who played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman from 1959 to 1980. He spent 19 seasons with the San Francisco Giants and also played for the San Diego Padres and Oakland Athletics. A fearsome left-handed power hitter, at his retirement he ranked second only to Babe Ruth in career home runs among left-handed batters and seventh overall, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986 in his first year of eligibility.

Quick Facts

Position: First baseman
Bats: Left
Born: 10 January 1938
Birthplace: Mobile, Alabama, U.S.
Died: 31 October 2018
Place of death: Palo Alto, California, U.S.
Debut league: MLB
Debut date: July 30

Facts from the source article.

Did You Know?

McCovey was the seventh child of ten born to Frank McCovey, a railroad worker, and Esther; he began working part time at age 12 and dropped out of high school to work full time.
After his playing career, McCovey was a senior advisor with the Giants for 18 years, visiting the team during spring training and the season.
In September 2003, McCovey and a business partner opened McCovey's Restaurant, a baseball-themed sports bar in Walnut Creek, California, which closed in February 2015.

Professional career

McCovey was invited to a New York Giants tryout camp in Melbourne, Florida, after being passed on by scout Ed Scott; the invitation came from Giants scout Alex Pompez. He made his professional debut in 1955 with the Sandersville Giants of the Georgia State League, signing for $175 per month with a $500 bonus. At 17 years old, 6'2" and 165 pounds, he hit .305 with 19 home runs and 113 runs scored in 107 games. While playing for a Giants farm club in Dallas, Texas, he did not participate when the team played in Shreveport, Louisiana, due to segregation.

He later played for the Phoenix Giants before being called up. In his major league debut on July 30, 1959, he went four-for-four against Hall-of-Famer Robin Roberts with two singles and two triples. McCovey found major league pitchers easier to hit because of their better control. He had a 22-game hitting streak, a San Francisco Giants rookie record.

The 1960 season was disappointing: in 101 games he hit .238 with 13 home runs and was demoted to the minors. New manager Alvin Dark made McCovey his first baseman for 1961, moving Orlando Cepeda to right field, and assigned Willie Mays as McCovey's roommate.

Legacy

Willie McCovey earned a spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986, his first year on the ballot, with 81.4 percent of the vote. He is most famous for the sheer violence of his line-drive swing. In his book Ball Four, pitcher Jim Bouton recalled McCovey making “little whimpering animal sounds” as he crushed batting practice pitches. Reds manager Sparky Anderson once said he walked McCovey so often that the slugger could have strolled to the moon on those free passes.

Announcer Jack Buck believed a McCovey line-drive homer to center was the hardest ball he ever saw hit. In 1969, McCovey set a major league record with 45 intentional walks, breaking the old mark by a dozen; that record lasted 33 years until Barry Bonds topped it. The next season, he drew 40 intentional walks. Mets manager Casey Stengel once asked a pitcher before a McCovey at-bat, “Where do you want to pitch him, upper deck or lower deck?”

In 1999, The Sporting News ranked McCovey 56th on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and he was a finalist for the MLB All-Century Team. In 2020, The Athletic placed him 76th on its “Baseball 100” list. Since 1980, the Giants have given out the Willie Mac Award to recognize his leadership and spirit. The part of San Francisco Bay beyond Oracle Park’s right field fence, once called China Basin, is now known as McCovey Cove.

A statue of McCovey sits across the cove at McCovey Point. The Giants retired his number 44 on September 21, 1980; he wore it to honor fellow Mobile, Alabama native Hank Aaron. A San Francisco cable car, renumbered from 4 to 44 in his honor, is on permanent display at Oracle Park.

Personal life

Willie McCovey and his first wife, Karen, had a daughter. He later married his longtime partner, Estela Bejar, at AT&T Park on August 1, 2018. In 1996, McCovey and fellow Hall of Famer Duke Snider admitted to federal tax fraud for not reporting roughly $70,000 earned from sports card shows and memorabilia sales between 1988 and 1990. He received two years of probation and a $5,000 fine, and President Barack Obama granted him a pardon on January 17, 2017.

Later in life, McCovey faced health problems including atrial fibrillation, a severe infection in 2015 that nearly killed him, and multiple knee surgeries that eventually confined him to a wheelchair. He died at age 80 on October 31, 2018, at Stanford University Medical Center following ongoing health issues, with his close friend and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan by his side. A public memorial took place at AT&T Park on November 8, 2018.